The 13 Richest Americans Of All Time

The richest Americans in history come primarily from several eras of extreme inequality.One group of robber barons, like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, lived between the Gilded Age and the Roaring Twenties.

Then there are the tech mavens and investors who made a fortune in the past 20 years.

We identified peak net worth for historical figures based on scholarly estimates. All figures are adjusted for inflation.

#13 Warren Buffett

Peak fortune: $63.9 billion

Born: 1930

Source of wealth: Investments. The Oracle of Omaha joined Berkshire Hathaway as chairman in 1970 and hasn't looked back. He has pledged to give away 99 per cent of his money.

#10 Stephen Van Rensselaer

Peak fortune: $68.5

Born: 1764

Source of wealth: Major of the US Militia and member of the New York State Assembly, Rensselaer was also heir to one of the most well-endowed estates in the US. He founded the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a portion of his wealth.

#9 Jay Gould

Peak fortune: $71.2

Born: 1836

Source of wealth: Railroad baron and gold speculator, Jay Gould masterminded the 19th century transportation boom in America. He and financier James Fisk also bought up a dominating share of the gold market at the time - enough to directly affect market movements during Gould's lifetime.

#5 John Jacob Astor

Peak fortune: $121 billion

Born: 1763

Source of wealth: A successful fur trader, he established a near monopoly within the U.S. by around 1800. He subsequently switched trades and went on to investing in real estate, focusing on New York City.

#4 Bill Gates

Source of wealth: Founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975. He held onto shares as Microsoft dominated the age of computers, peaking in personal wealth at the top of the Dot Com Bubble.

Estimate from wide-spread reports of a $101 billion net worth for a period in 1999, adjusted for inflation.

#3 Cornelius Vanderbilt

Fortune: $185 billion

Born: 1794

Source of wealth: In 1862, he began to buy railroad lines. Although already 70 years old, his wealth mostly comes from this business of the 19th century. Prior to that, he was known as a cold-blooded steam-boat entrepreneur.